CHANGES, CHALLENGES AND THE EXQUISITE ORANGE

THE STATUS QUO

       Education really seemed important, the day I learned the meeting of 'the status quo."  It was elementary school, but it could have been an Ivy League college.  The phrase had the power to transcend. But soon I learned the status quo was more about the past than the exciting future.  Now I'm wondering if I'm not on the road to being a Luddite and too stuck on the status quo.

              Here's the beef.  My old computer and the need to upgrade to quicker and more whiz bang applications.  I love the new technology, I just don't like having to adapt to a new calendar system, new format and abandon a system that has worked just fine.

              Three or four years ago I got a new leather credit card holder-money clip.  It's got a nice sheen of dust on it because the old one, worn, a teensy bit frayed and requiring  an occasional re insert of the metal clip into the leather slot, works fine. Really!

              Plus, I'll be shopping for a new computer soon and I know that is really going to change the old habits. Some days the status quo sounds very comfortable.

PEOPLE WITH MONEY BEHAVING ODDLY

       If you've ever thrilled at the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus, we've got a three ring spectacle for you today. You are in your bleacher seat, the lights are low, the spot hits the ring master, in his red jacket and black top hat.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS OF ALL AGES. KENNETH AND IRVIN FELD, IN ASSOCIATION WITH DYSFUNCTIONAL PRODUCTIONS, PROUDLY PRESENTS, THE RINGLING BROTHERS BARNUM AND BAILEY CIRCUS. THE GRRREAAATEST SHOOWWW ON EARTH!! LINK HERE TO READ ALL ABOUT IT!

BOB'S STORY
CHALLENGE AND COURAGE

       Frequent readers know that from time to time my former radio colleague and long time friend, Bob is providing updates on his battle with Leukemia.  Here's his latest report.

Friends,

This week's chemo boost was routine; easily tolerated. Diane and I 
toured the Gift of Life Transplant House in Rochester, MN. She will stay 
there while I am hospitalized for my BMT. I will join her during the 
months following my discharge from Methodist Hospital. We plan on a 
combined stay in Rochester of 3 months. Gift of Life is available to us 
for subsequent visits to Rochester, if they relate to my transplant. My 
sister has sent her blood match re-verification kit to Mayo. We will get 
one to my brother yet this week. Our next regularly scheduled Mayo 
appointment is May 31st. We trust we will get the go-signal at that time 
and know when I am to be hospitalized to "condition" me for the 
allogeneic stem cell transplant. Conditioning includes Campath 
chemotherapy and 200 cGy TBI (Total Body Radiation, in case there are 
any radiation oncology fans listening in). We considered a trip to 
northern Japan, but this seemed a more convenient, cost effective 
radiation solution.

"Remain calm. All is well." --Kevin Bacon

Foster

A NATURAL TREAT

A simple story about a joy of living in California.

A story without words, but with great scent.

AHHH!

See you down the trail.

LIVING IN THE LIGHT

BEGINNING

"Life begins perpetually.  Gathered together

at last under the leadership of man...unified, disciplined, armed with the secret powers of the atom and with knowledge as yet beyond dreaming, Life, forever dying to be born afresh, forever young and eager will presently stand up this earth as upon a footstool, and stretch out its realm amidst the stars." 

H.G. Wells

       

        Hearing young people respond to the death of the poster boy for terrorism

banged me on the head. One half to all of their lives have been lived with the image of Bin Laden running an army of terror from the shadows. The ultimate super villain has been

brought down by the good guys, American heros. 

         There is growth now in this space where reality fuses into iconic myth. The lurking face of evil is gone and and this generation, this demographic cohort, has a cause to celebrate a brighter future with a good new story.

         Cheers to the young, to beginnings and  to "knowledge as yet beyond dreaming."

DAY BOOK

IN A WORLD WHERE POPPIES RULE

       A career in journalism, chasing people and stories and now a thrill in capturing images of the gentle life  on the central coast. This is the domain of the California poppy and this is the season.

       A season for many blooms.

 Growth in what I call the Pinochio cactus

Looking into shadows.

The shape of things.

 As Yogi said, "You can observe a lot by watchin'."

See you down the trail.

POST BIN LADEN- AN UNEASY LEGACY & THE SEX AND WORK LIFE OF THE BLOND ITALIANS

A COUPLE OF THINGS DON'T FEEL RIGHT

       Watching the reaction to Bin Laden's demise has prompted an imprecise kind of brooding. The world is a better place without him.  He fit my description of evil.  Still I feel uneasy about the celebrations of his death. I am happy to see a sense of national relief and unity.  I have been moved by comments from friends and loved ones of victims of the 9/11 attack.  This will create major disruptions for al-Qaida. I do not mourn his passing and in my own heart hope that he sensed a moment of panic, terror and pain before he died.  Still, I am squeamish about seeing joyous celebrations over a death, even the death of an evil man.

       I recall thoughts of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and preacher who

was executed for his role in the attempt to assassinate Adolph Hitler. He was convinced that his was his duty to work for Hitler's death.  He believed his imprisonment and eventual death were part of the cost he had to bear.  I've heard analysts compare Bin Laden to Hitler.  Both were driven by dark and evil forces.  Still our higher calling is more than death, war and revenge.  Just a nagging riff in my heart.

        NOW TO THE FUTURE

      Our national security and foreign policy apparatus needs to examine the Pakistani duplicity.  One expert compared Abbottabad to a kind of West Point garrison town.  How could they not have known of Bin Laden's presence under their nose?  Stupid? Inept?

or double dealing?

         Some $3 Billion a year flows to the Pakis.  Hmmm!  It is a tough call, given they are members of the nuclear club, but there will be some hard discussions forthcoming.

AND NOW-JOY

SEX AND HONEY

QUEEN, ARE YOU IN THERE?

         The more appropriate question would go to her reproductive proclivities.  After setting the hive, we need to check to see if there are signs of baby bees in the making.

The frames need to be examined.

Looking for signs of closed cells, indication that eggs have been deposited and pupa are growing and in transformation.

The new bees further populate the colony and add to the work force our our blond Italian bees from Glenn Ca.
Most are female workers, who collect the nectar and pollen.
The others are male drones most of whom just hang out waiting for a chance to mate.

The bees build their honeycomb structures on the frames

 but it is important the queen not lay eggs in the portion of the hive where the honey is to be harvested

so there is a debate about the Queen Screen

This will separate the Queen and the reproductive business from the upper end of the hive where those of us on the Pooh patrol get the good stuff.

However bee keepers disagree on the need or wisdom of the separator.  So in a few days, we'll peek again to see if our work force can squeeze thru  the slats.

The queen is too big for that. 

No further comment!

Stay tuned.

I COULD HAVE KILLED BIN LADEN IN '99 & A WILD SHOW

BIN LADEN

Photo Courtesy of AP

        As a journalist and documentary producer/writer/director, I reported on national security and intelligence.  It was from that field of information and contacts that I drew

substantial elements of my 1999 historical mystery/thriller THE SANIBEL CAYMAN DISC.

           The black market trade of chemical and biological weapons is a major factor in the plot line and while the book is fiction, most of the material is true or based on fact.

I included Bin Laden and his knowledge of Petrov class CBW as a plot element.  As a mujah fighter in Afghanistan, Bin Laden saw the effectiveness of the weapon and as a character in my novel reflected truth of that dark zone of the weapons trade.

           Turn the clock back in your own mind.  In 1998 few knew of Osama Bin Laden but intelligence professionals.  I implanted him into my work and posed the kind of danger he represented.   I thought it was a meager way to raise a public awareness of him and the threatening world of black market weapons of mass destruction.

           Friends and contacts from the intelligence and national security community thanked me. The book sold a few thousand copies and it prompted interesting reaction from some readers.  But it wasn't until a couple of years later that Bin Laden's name became familiar to the world. Had the publisher not been in the middle of being purchased by a larger media conglomerate, the novel could have sold more.  Woulda, coulda, shoulda!

           I wrestled then, when writing the novel, and many times since, if I shouldn't 

have written a scenario to kill Bin Laden.

           As an old friend, who chaired the House Committee on Intelligence told me once

about thrillers and spy novels. "There's a lot of truth in that fiction."

NOW SOMETHING GENTLE
A UNIQUE DISPLAY

       For seven years the Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve have presented a remarkable  Wildflower Show in Cambria. This year some 400 examples were displayed.  It is an amazing number given the display are fresh wildflowers collected in north San Luis Obispo County, from the Monterey County line to the Morro Bay Estuary and from the Coastal Bluffs to the ridge of the Santa Lucia Mountains.  These examples are from our neighborhood.

 The variety is stunning, even with in a general type.

 These are all fresh wildflowers and blooming at the time of the show.

 Even "dreaded thistle" can provide a couple variations of bloom

I learned there are varieties of something called owl's clover

this is dense

 this is slender

 The Indiana name for this was the prairie pointer or shooting star

 There are wildflower versions of domesticated flowers

 It seems extraordinary, but on almost any of the walking paths or hiking trails,

you can observe this beauty in nature.

Natures gift to the central coast.

 And it seems that like most events at the Vets Hall in Cambria, there is a 

Barbecue to accompany it.

See you down the trail.